NEW YORK’S TRAFFIC.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 15 September 1928, Page 14

NEW YORK’S TRAFFIC.

DEALING WITH CONGESTION. There are traffic experts in New York who argue that there is no good reason why the city’s entire population should go to work at the same lour or return to their honuis, a.ter tae clay’s work, at the same hour, ihey propose that the city’s pedestrian traffic should be staggered—that is, one part of the city’s population should |go to work a.t 8.o(), another at 8.4 b, another at 9, and «o on. In thi.s way traffic congestion will be thinned out, and the city’s subways, elevates trains,, surface cars and ’ouses called upon to handle jess traffic at any one time. New York theatres lor a. short time staggered their opening hours in the hope oi relieving congestion in the theatre district just before show time. Staggering opening hours meant also staggering cLsing hours. Some reliei was noticed, but for some reason or other the plan was abandoned. However, the city’s traffic authorities continue to argue that the plan of staggering traffic is practical. Recently in New York the country’s largest insurance company, occupying a 42-storey building and employing thousands of employees, introduced a plan of having its employees report for work over a period of two hours. All were not required to come at the same hour, and there was a noticeable improvement in traffic conditions as a 1 result. The employees start for home as early as 4 o’clock, and the hour of quitting continues until 6 for those who came last. The plan is so arranged that an employee comes early one week and late the next. New York City is built upon a narrow island, and. has been obliged, to expand upward rather than in other directions Tbe Equitable Building at 1.20 Broadway, lias 14,000 tenants, and 100,000 people use, its 65 elevators everyday between 8 and 6. The Wool worth building, with its 57 storeys, houses 12,000 tenants. Jt lias been said that if for some reason the tenants of New York’s buildings had to crowd into the .street all at the same time there would be no room for them. New York has grown so rapidly that its transportation facilities have been unable to keep up with the growth of the city. The most recent plan to relieve motor vehicular congestion is tbe proposal to build an arterial highway, to be constructed overhead.